Boruto -Naruto Next Generations- – 26

I think I owe everybody an apology for the delays in my recent posts. There have been some extenuating circumstances in real life, which I will refer to as pains with relocating. Fortunately, that’s all done and dusted, so everything should be back to normal. Just in time for the fall season as well. Without further ado, allons-y!

Kagura’s Burden

I’m rather interested in how this arc is shaping out. Obviously there’s the question of Kagura, and his succession to the Seven Swords. Nevertheless, I feel that preening him to become Mizukage is a bit excessive. Let me just say, heaping those kind of expectations onto someone at such a young age is not healthy at all, regardless of their talent. There are healthier ways of raising promising prospects, and shovelling a load of pressure onto them is generally a pretty poor way of going about it. Especially if they’re exhibiting negative reactions in the first place. That said, becoming friends with children of his age is definitely helpful. Maybe Kagura can even find some common ground with Iwabe and Boruto, which would help provide him an outlet for repressed emotions.

History of the Blood Mist

There’s the history between Konohagakure and Kirigakure, which is a very sordid affair. Many lives were brutally lost, due to conflict between the villages. Iwabe might have proved abrasive, expressing a vengeance akin to the Uchiha’s cycle of hatred, but he provides a perspective that is difficult to refute. I’d even say it is relatable, the idea that you’ve been terribly wronged, yet are expected to forgive. However, Kagura sincerely apologised for the Blood Mist era, and the Mizukage’s actions suggest its a stance politically taken upon by Kirigakure.

True, you get some low-life punks who revel their bloodstained history in jingoistic fashion. But the fact remains that a conscious effort is being made to move on from those times, and create a brighter future that promises a better place for everybody. Iwabe can’t hold onto the past forever, and eventually has to reconcile with it. Not to say that he should be made to forgive, especially if his heart isn’t ready. Anyhow, there are ways of coming to peace with your demons, that don’t involve figuratively butting your head against a wall. How will Kagura and Iwabe reach a point of compromise? That’s probably the answer I’m most excited for.

Concluding Thoughts

While our current generation is still a bunch of kids, who have much to learn, even that doesn’t excuse their lack of thought process. You’ve come to a village, already bumped into some violent people, then let your weakest friend wander all by his lonesome into the dead of night? No wonder he got kidnapped! The situation looks pretty terrible, but I’m expecting these goons to be small fry. All we know is that they fear the true boss, whose parameters remain a complete mystery.

Again the total lack of supervision during this field trip is just blowing away my suspension of disbelief.

Last week Boruto being able to wander off with his friends into a dark alley was one thing. They were on their free time, it was the middle of the day, they were still in their groups. But Denki is just allowed to go shopping alone after dark and no one cares? What the hell are their chaperones doing?

And then like idiots the kids are going to tell no one and rush off to save Denki all on their own and even when they run into Kagura, a local with connections to the fucking Mizukage, he’s just going to tag along instead of calling the authorities?

They’re trying to create all of this tension and conflict for the sake of an interesting plot while trying to get us to forget that adults exist so that it’s always the kids fighting and that’s just stupid.

Boruto seeks to protect the goodwill and effort exhibited by folks like Kagura and the Mizukage, who are obviously deeply apologetic regarding their village’s past. How? By ensuring the trip isn’t cancelled. Its cancellation would surely damage any progress in the relationship between Konohagakure and Kirigakure. Progress that people painstakingly worked hard for. That said, I don’t think it’s a good idea that Boruto decided to take matters into his own hands. However, I can certainly see where he’s trying to come from. I personally consider his intentions to be good, but misguided.

Because that would be cheap. Letting the adult interfere would have been the proper course of action – or is it? By letting the adults solving it you would have the resentment lingers – solving the symptom but not the problem.

And who is to say that the adults not knew about it? I won’t be surprise if Kagura reported back Chojuro and him telling Kagura he already knew.

You know, I wonder if Boruto wanted to make a commentary on post-war Japan.

A land that was involved in a lot of bloodshed now transformed into an advanced commercial hub. Still, there are those who hold a grudge against the country for its past crimes. They’re aware the current generation isn’t to blame for the mistakes of their forebears, but those open wounds aren’t going to be mended by saying ‘sorry’, no matter how many times they apologize. And while there are many in the village devoted to remembering those crimes so they don’t repeat them again, darker elements argue they should feel proud of and emulate their twisted past.

Hey Mistic! Oddly enough, I was actually thinking about that when I watched this episode. However, I wasn’t so sure if it was suited for discussion. RandomC is a place for anime fans to gather, and read posts about the things we all share a common love for. While civilised political discourse is always a welcome topic of conversation, it would be very unlikely to occur in the context of Japan’s WW2 involvement, which remains a controversial issue even to this day.

Whereas Germany as a nation are very repentant for what they did during WW2, from what I know, Shinzo Abe is anything but in regards to the events during WW2. I definitely think there are people like Kagura out there, who are really apologetic, and the world needs people like him. But when the leader of the nation takes a political stance, akin to the jingoism I referred to in my post, it’s hard to say whether we could describe such progress as ‘sincere’. This is the biggest contrasting point with Kirigakure, in my opinion.

Having visited Yasukuni Shrine this summer, I did some research since it seemed like such a beautiful place, and I felt physically sick to the core upon discovering an ugly truth. Enshrined there are war criminals, who carried out unspeakable atrocities that rivalled the Holocaust. Some would even argue they exceeded the Holocaust in sheer horror. Yet their lives are celebrated and remembered. It’s true that many ordinary soldiers are also enshrined, but I can see the reason why many in South East Asia would feel so aggrieved at the continuation of political visits to the shrine.

Imagine if Germany held remembrance that incorporated some Nazi war criminals, and elected a prime minister who would trivialise the Holocaust. There is no world I can think of where it would sit well with the Jewish community, and those who are descended from victims of WW2 atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers are precisely the people I don’t want to accidentally tread o,n through carelessness or potential ignorance on my behalf. It’s certainly a sensitive matter, and I don’t think I know enough about the subject to directly engage through my post. Hence I decided to pursue the matter no further.

Well, there’s been a good deal of anime with political undertones. Centaur no Nayami in this very season, Concrete Revolutio and Gate not so long ago… And others, like Macross Delta, are guilty of sticking to close to ‘Imperial Nostalgia’ tropes. But I agree that Boruto doesn’t seem the kind of series for such heavy discussions.

This is all very true, but pointing too much at Abe himself is problematic. Democracies are just that: democracies. Weird leaders get elected, and letting it make you decide something about ‘the nation’ because of a person who happens to get elected at that moment for any number of reasons that are far more complex than ‘the nation’ has problems. Look at Trump, Duterte, Park Geun-hye, and yes, Abe. There are lots of complex reasons for why any given person gets elected at any given time. Often having as much to do with their opponents as themselves.

That said, I honestly hadn’t really thought about the episode in the context of Japan but it does follow. Having lived in Japan, and Korea (so both sides of that particular divide), it’s an interesting point to be made as both sides have good and bad points

There was a point during Shippuden when I thought that she had started to see the current Mizukage in a different light.
Anyway, I too was hoping for some favourable evolution on this aspect as well. I mean, the Japanese trope of the incredibly attractive middle aged female that can’t find someone sounds less believable with every anime.

Their father’s relationship defined the earlier show and these two, despite being the nominal leads, have barely even interacted in this show and we’re 26 episodes in. It’s time to start building that relationship.

Half of what intrigues me about this show is seeing the ways in which their relationship differs from that of their parents.

For that simple reason I’ve always been more on board with these two than the idea of Boruto and the class rep. She is WAY too similar to early hinata personality wise. This show primarily fascinates me most when it deliberately twists an element from the previous series. If it’s the same, then why waste my time (which is why the shadow kid is one of the worst new characters to me as he’s almost a straight copy of his father) and if it’s JUST completely different, then it’s… better… than being the same but it still doesn’t capitalize on the premise enough for me.

They’ve been shipping them since day one. I’m 100% that this two are meant to be.
More, I just realised that Sumire might be paired with Oroshimaru’s clone. (Mitsuki? Damn, I forgot his name. Even the names are boring xD)